Chapter 252: Black pot
After Leigh Zimmerman had taken a bath and changed her clothes in the bathroom, Eric had just finished reading a pair of newspapers. Glancing at the somewhat bewildered girl, Eric said, "Leigh, could you go downstairs and help me pack two breakfasts for Jeffrey and me? Anything is fine."
"Oh, hmm," Leigh nodded quickly and picked up her handbag to leave the room, relieved that Eric hadn"t asked her to leave directly.
"Are you still a bit reluctant?" Jeffrey asked mockingly.
Eric paid no attention to Jeffery"s tone, smiled and said, "Of course, last night was wonderful."
"Alright, let"s get down to business. What do you think about these reports?" Jeffrey gestured helplessly at the pile of newspapers Eric had been flipping through.
Eric fixed his contemptuous expression and said, "If I hadn"t taken action yesterday, we"d be in a difficult situation today, since people tend to have preconceived notions. It"s still okay now; at least, the waters have been muddied, so public opinion won"t be totally against us. As long as we handle our PR well, nothing major should happen. Oh, I called Robert last night. He"ll be flying over to help out in the morning. He has more experience in this than me."
"Yeah, I was about to suggest something like this, but I thought you might have had something else in mind?"
Eric smiled: "What could it be? You don"t mean to say I"ve been excluding Robert?"
"Isn"t that the case?"
Eric denied, "Of course not. Although I do mind the 15% stake he took away since the two companies merged, I will still treat him as one of my own. As long as Robert does not start any internal strife, I will not do so either."
Jeffrey, whom Eric was already quite familiar with, gave Eric a scornful look and said, "Your words are not convincing at all."
"No, I"m telling the truth," Eric countered, "Jeffrey. My goals are much bigger than you imagine, and if I start arguing with people over benefits now, it would be very hard for me to move forward."
"What is your ultimate goal?"
"Hollywood!"
Jeffrey stared blankly, not understanding, and asked, "What?"
"Hollywood," Eric repeated, with a hint of youthful recklessness in his voice, "I want that one day, when people mention the word "Hollywood", the first thing they think of is not Los Angeles, not the big movie studios, not any movie stars that are engraved on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but me, Eric Williams. Hollywood is me, and I am Hollywood!"
Eric"s heartfelt words sounded very inspiring, and Jeffrey stared at him, wanting to say something to undermine Eric, but he opened his mouth and instead uttered a blessing: "Well, I wish you success."
Eric nodded emphatically: "So, Jeffrey, what do you think? My goal is so far away, the road is so long, should I stop and quarrel with a companion who might help me walk faster, for a few rations?"
Jeffrey sighed and shook his head: "I understand."
The two had briefly discussed a plan, and then Leigh Zimmerman entered with a few breakfasts in her hands.
"I think I"ll just go back to my room to eat," Jeffrey said, feeling uncomfortable at the sight of the couple cuddled up on the sofa across from him. Without waiting for Eric to say anything, Jeffrey grabbed his portion and left.
"Don"t worry about him. Let"s keep eating," Eric said, noticing Leigh"s expression.
"Am I bothering you guys?"
"No, not at all. Everything has been said. Oh, by the way. Didn"t you say you"re also performing in a Broadway play, in addition to modeling yesterday evening?"
Leigh Zimmerman nodded: "Yeah, I really enjoy performing. Oh, Eric, I"m performing on Broadway next month, are you coming back to watch?"
Although the girl was looking at Eric with very expectant eyes, he could only shake his head: "Sorry, Lily, I have to rush back to Los Angeles right after wrapping up Home Alone."
Leigh lowered her head and started fiddling with the salad in front of her. Though she wanted to take the initiative to ask for some opportunities, the woman who knew the industry rules well knew that if she actively asked Eric for something, she would only get a blank response.
Therefore, this kind of thing could only be initiated by Eric. If the other party never mentioned it, she couldn"t complain either. Just treat it as a one-time thing.
After all, Leigh Zimmerman had also heard that Eric had chosen her, a n.o.body, among a group of supermodels. Whenever she thought of her roommate, another elite model of the modeling management company, and heard that she had gotten the role, the girl felt proud.
Because she had only been in the industry for less than a year, when she heard about the opportunity, she never even considered competing, as she felt she couldn"t compete with all those famous models. Her roommate, however, encouraged her, and they both submitted their resumes. Unexpectedly, she was chosen.
However, due to her roommate"s jealousy of her luck, they soon had a falling-out. After hearing several sarcastic remarks from her roommate, Leigh stopped talking to her and began to plan to move out. Compared to this opportunity, what was a not-so-reliable friendship worth? Not to mention that her roommate was not treating her as a true friend, often using her earlier entry into the industry to show off and act like an elder. In other words, it was difficult to develop real friendship between models in such a fierce compet.i.tion, except for... Lesbians.
Eric sniffed the faint scent of perfume from the girl and, after eating breakfast, asked, "Do you want to pursue a career as an actor?"
Leigh Zimmerman was delighted and nodded eagerly.
"Perfect," Eric said, "Do you know "Friends"?"
"Of course, I know," the girl said excitedly, "and I also know that you wrote the script for that situational comedy! I watch it every week. I like Ross the most; I think he"s the kind of naïve perfectionist, which is much better than his sister"s obsessive perfectionism. And then there"s Phoebe..."
Realizing her babbling was inappropriate, the girl quickly shut her mouth and awkwardly glanced at Eric.
Eric laughed and said, "Thank you for liking this TV show. There"s an episode of "Friends" where there"s a blackout in New York and Chandler and a famous model get locked in a bank vault. It"s about an episode long. I"d recommend you try it out."
According to the original script, this episode was supposed to take place in the seventh episode of the first season. Chandler was meant to meet a Victoria"s Secret underwear model, but since Victoria"s Secret wasn"t very famous at the time, Eric changed the ident.i.ty of the girl to a famous model. The script was revised and the scene was delayed to the twentieth episode, which hasn"t been filmed yet.
Leigh Zimmerman asked in surprise, "Really, Eric, do you think I can really do it?"
Eric nodded confidently, as he was sure there would be many similar characters in the movies or TV series he was preparing. It would be better to do the favor than to hire a cheap and unscrupulous casting a.s.sistant to scout young actresses. The influence of "Friends" now is much greater than it was in the first season, so it can be said that making a cameo in it is equivalent to showing up in front of more than 20 million viewers in the US, which is much better than shooting a few magazine covers.
Of course, that"s all Eric can give to Leigh Zimmerman. Having appeared in two consecutive hit TV series and a blockbuster film, it would be easy for her to get more roles. Whether she can make further progress will depend on her own efforts and luck.
Leigh saw the certain gaze from Eric and immediately rushed up to him, giving him a few quick kisses on his face.
"Alright, alright," Eric licked his warm little tongue on his lips. He hurriedly pushed the lady away: "Stop fooling around, let me finish my breakfast."
Alan went through the day"s agenda with Eric as usual, and after Alan was finished with his business, Eric pointed to the girl beside him and said, "Alan, contact Los Angeles and I remember there was a model role in "Friends" Episode 20, give it to Miss Zimmerman."
Allen quickly jotted down the matter in his memo, glanced at the woman next to Eric, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Eric, do you think you should speak to Mr. John Aniston directly?"
Eric almost forgot about this, but he knew that John Aniston, the producer of "Friends", had the most power. If he pushed Leigh forward, John Aniston would not only not let the girl get the role, he would also call to scold him.
Eric thought for a moment, waved for Aaron to come over, leaned in to Aaron"s ear and said, "Tell him it was recommended by Jeffrey. He"s been single for so long and he"s getting on in years; it"s hard for him to find a girl. Let John do some more work."
Allen gave a slight twitch of his mouth and asked, "Eric, should we inform Mr. Hansen?"
"Don"t worry about it, I"ll tell him," Eric replied.
Allen"s heart said it was strange to be told about such a large black pot, but he just nodded helplessly, closed the memorandum, and hurriedly left.
"Eric, I can"t believe you"re being so reckless," Leigh Zimmerman scowled at Eric after Allen left. Although Eric had whispered it into Allen"s ear, his voice was loud enough for her to hear: "I"m only guest-starring this episode, and I"m not going to pick a fight with your little girlfriend."
Eric smiled and said, "If you hadn"t said it like that, you wouldn"t have gotten the role."
Leigh Zimmerman asked curiously, "Why isn"t "Friends" one of your Firefly investments?"
"Yeah, but the producer of "Friends" is my girlfriend"s dad."
Although due to Eric"s prior arrangement, the public opinion did not unanimously condemn the "shocking behavior" of the cast of "Home Alone 2" for destroying the ecology of Central Park, the incident still had a great impact. While some people accepted the viewpoint of Jeffrey"s PR, as seen in the newspapers, there were many who disagreed. Thus, a huge debate began to unfold over the next two days, centering around the question of whether the set of "Home Alone 2" should continue to be shot with artificial snow in Central Park, quickly gaining traction and becoming a hot topic across the United States.
Eric"s donation of $500,000 to the Central Park Preservation Committee had a significant influence. When interviewed about the environmental impact of the filming of "Home Alone 2" in Central Park, Mr. Frick praised the crew for taking numerous precautions, calling them a very responsible crew.
Of course, the committee accepted the $500,000 donation from the production team, and Tim Frick didn"t hide it; otherwise, it would have been more troublesome to be caught by the media. But Tim Frick couldn"t say that this was a compensation for the possible damage caused by artificial snow to the vegetation in the park, or else he would have been slapping himself in the face. Instead, he said that the production team saw that some public facilities in Central Park were quite old, so they donated this money to replace them with a batch of new public facilities.
Because the interview with Tim Frick was broadcast in prime time, a lot of people saw the news, and with a series of PR by the cast of "Home Alone 2", the truth gradually became clear.
Finally, the Manhattan District Government issued a statement indicating that a supervisory team would be specially dispatched to monitor whether the filming crew in Central Park adhered to the promised rules when using artificial snow during the shooting period. Additionally, several volunteers would be selected from the citizens to ensure the fairness of the supervisory team.
After the statement was issued, the production team also immediately released a statement, indicating that they would not only cooperate with the work of the supervisory team, but also were willing to bear expenses beyond the Manhattan government budget.
Both sides exchanged friendly gestures, and with the news group quietly doing its part, the matter was eventually resolved properly.
And hence, the so-called environmental protection organization Gepo did not come to stop the shooting of the drama team. In late October, "Home Alone 2" wrapped up successfully. Besides rushing back to Los Angeles to conclude post-production for two films, the release date of "The Others" was also imminent.
This was the first shot of the Firefly Thanksgiving-Christmas file. If they could get the opening red, it would have a positive impact on the box office of the subsequent movies; thus, Eric attached great importance to this matter.